Four years after it was first released on PC, developer Bohemia Interactive has said that DayZ will exit beta and arrive on Xbox… next year.

“Being candid is the core of the relationship we have as a studio with you, our community. That includes openly talking about things that we know will cause a lot of disappointment and negative feelings,” lead producer Eugen Harton said.

“I'll start right of the bat with one such thing: unfortunately, there will be no other major release this year.”

Harton added that while some of the changes the studio are working on are now “more settled”, others – such as vaulting, swimming and vehicles – are either “work in progress, or not implemented”.

“Although we are no longer waiting for any large technology implementation, there is still a lot of polish that we want to go through before we get it out. Realistically looking at the status of our internal build, and having about three weeks left in 2017, that is obviously not enough time to tackle all the things above,” he added.

“Let's just state the obvious: the PC beta is not coming before the end of 2017. We tried to get it done sooner, but it's going to be 2018 folks. That is as much as we are sure of yet. I'll be honest, it has been a long wait already - even for us - but that's all we got now.”

Bohemia also insists that the game is on track to hit consoles in 2018.

“As soon as the PC beta is headed in a way we like, we're still committed to bringing DayZ to Xbox, where we have a large community of gamers patiently (very patiently!) waiting for a truly hardcore online survival game,” Harton claimed. “All of that will (and must) happen next year - meaning we're just about to start what could possibly be the most exciting year for DayZ so far. In short: DayZ will be out of Early Access next year, and we'll also finally deliver it to console players in 2018.”

How relevant DayZ remains in 2017 (or even 2018) is hard to say. Certainly in an age where games like PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds can go from Early Access to full release (on the presumption it makes it this year) in nine months, DayZ’s protracted development feels like a relic.